FOX 47 revolving door

[sinklair]

Do all News Director rejects land in Lansing?

After being run out of Flint after two failed years as News Director at WEYI-WSMH (AKA “Mid-Michigan NOW!”), then a year as a Digital Recruiter with WLNS’s parent company Nexstar, Neille Giffune is bringing her reign of terror tour to WSYM FOX 47.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neillegiffune

So she goes from a last place station in market 65 Flint to the last place station in market 115 Lansing? Not what I’d call career progression.

Other than eliminating the network identification and laying off most of the staff at her former station, Neille brings nothing more than her “I’m better than you” attitude.

But after two months on the job, Neille’s bio still is missing on the website and the past Assistant News Director Maddie is still listed.

https://www.fox47news.com/madeline-cowdell

So maybe Neille won’t be hanging around for long.

If you care about improving the quality of journalism, let’s hope Neille moves on quickly.

Otherwise WSYM will remain firmly in last place with its Scripps gimmicky pretaped anchorless newscasts featuring hard hitting “news” from your community like Mason leaf pickup schedules, Leslie road closures, Lansing model railroad club, and Good Neighbors.

Of course I’d you’re looking for breaking news, don’t count on Fox47. And the weather team is in Grand Rapids. The real news is usually stories seen on WILX, WLNS, and what remains of the Lansing State Journal.

Great job GM Gary and News Director Matt! Setting the journalism world on fire!

[MasterB]

I thought Nellie left the state of Michigan to work for Nexstar in Dallas at Nexstar HQ with Uncle Perry Sook. Fox47 will always be the dog station in Lansing they should've kept Gray doing the news for them, I guess Scripps was too cheap to pay Gray to do the news.

[sinklair]

Neille still lives in the MetroDetroit area. She never moved to Flint. She has no intention of moving to Lansing. It shows just how committed she is to the job.

As long as Scripps looks at Lansing as a “bureau” for its Detroit and Grand Rapids stations, it will always be run on the cheap.

[JoeGebhardt]

It was a mess from the start of their launch under Scripps.

[SD45]

Market 65.... Its fallen down to 74 nowadays.

Downtown Lansing is better than the doom and gloom of Pierson Road.

[OnTopic]

It is funny to see you always bash Neille, and even easier to see you were one of the few negative humans that walked through the Flint doors. Neille was, and still is, a good human and ND. Being away from the Sinclair masters will likely be a major boost and allow her true abilities to shine.

Those that she works with there are already saying how much she is working to turn things around.

And in your case, it is true, she IS better than you.

[sinklair]

If what you say is true (it isnt) she’s gone backward in both marketsize and responsibility (since she’s been demoted from News Director and a Nexstar corporate position to an Assistant News Director). Doesn’t sound like a promotion to me. Sounds perfect for someone who made it all about her and made the lives of those around her miserable. It’s called karma. I just feel bad for everyone at Fox47 that will have to put up with her… only to have her blame the station’s shortcomings on the people doing the work.


I guess Scripps doesn’t require background checks or simple internet searches before hiring these days.

While it’s clear who have no idea who I am… I will agree that being away from the Sinclair Desthstar is a good thing. But let’s look at Neille’s record as a News Director. Lower ratings, staff layoffs, newscast cancellations, mass staff departures, lower morale. Great resume she brings to WSYM.

If anyone wants to do their research, just call anyone left on Pierson Road… or anyone who worked with Neille previously and they’ll tell you how yelling, intimidation, blaming others were common themes of her year plus long reign as News Director and about a decade under the News Director Who Shall Not Be Named. A leopard doesn’t change her spots.

[sinklair]

I also find it interesting that instead of dealing with the real issue of bad management — people go out of their way to bash me for stating the obvious.

Fox 47 is the last place station in the market. Under Scripps, it will only remain so. They are throwing anything at the wall to see if it sticks.

“Let’s try anchorless newscasts…”
“Let’s try the in your neighborhood gimmick…”
“Since weather is the number one draw to a newscast, let’s have our Chief Met not even live or work in the market and hub it out of Grand Rapids…”
“Let’s pretape newscasts so there is nothing live…”
“Let’s have an all MMJ model and require them to do multiple stories so there’s is no in-depth reporting…”
“Let’s add on multiple newscasts and just rerun stories so we have entire newscasts full of repetition… because research shows viewers hate old, repeated news…”

These are all decisions that GM Gary, News Director Matt, and now Neille have to own. It’s time to stop blaming new journalists right out of college for a failed news strategy.

There is a reason why so many Fox47 journalists are leaving. Bad pay. Bad morale. Overworked. Underappreciated.

Sound familiar? It’s the same issues that Neille faced and could not address during her failed tenure in Flint. Do you really expect her to fix those problems using her limited skill set, in another corporate top heavy organization, with a strategy aimed at controlling costs at the expense of real journalism?

I don’t think it will work. Let’s see if the brain trust at WSYM proves me wrong.

[MasterB]

That's a long commute Detroit to Lansing Flint wasn't that far from Detroit only an hour away which Lansing is about a 2 hour drive or close to it. Why didn't Nellie move to Lansing I'm sure she could've moved into the Governors Mansion LOL .

[SD45]

Its not a bad drive. Novi to Lansing is about 65 miles, and Fox 47 is right next to 496.

[MWmetalhead]

Horrible drive in the winter if roads are in poor shape.

[Colonel Flagg]

Horrible drive in the winter if roads are in poor shape.

Horrible in perpetual construction zones too.

[MWmetalhead]

Anyone driving from my area to, say, Ann Arbor or Brighton is pretty much screwed. I-696 is a mess, I-275 is a mess, and the Jeffries where it dumps into M-14 (going westbound) is a mess thanks to ongoing repairs to the I-275 overpass. On top of all the above, portions of Grand River Ave. are under construction, too. Thanks MDOT.

I've been avoiding the stretch of 696 and I-96 from Telegraph Rd to US 23 like the plague lately. The last few times I've driven to the Grand Rapids area, I've elected to take I-75 to I-69. There is a construction zone near Davisburg, but Dixie Hwy serves as a convenient alternate route if needed.

[Jack5o2soco]

My source says hannah mcilree is out with two more soon to follow

[sinklair]

It appears the whole place is imploding under Gary, Matt and Neille. Scrippscast is working as well in Lansing as it appears to be working everywhere else.